I recently broke a bone in my foot and have been on crutches. It has been an incredible opportunity to feel the kindness of others.  A young lady in the middle of a transaction at a cash machine stopped what she was doing to open the door for me.  How wonderful it felt to know there was such a kind person out there. Rather than  being “plugged in”, she was aware of the difficulty I was having opening the door and put her business aside to help me out.

Today I decided to put on my backpack and crutch to the mailbox for exercise when a woman I have never met pulled over to ask me if I needed a ride somewhere.  She explained a few years ago she had been in a similar situation and knew how hard it was.  That situation created empathy-she understood my experience and wanted to help.

Multiple people I have never met approach me in the grocery store to ask what happened and to share their own story, often ending with advice to look after my foot better than they did as it still affects them today.  A commonality created an opening for them to approach a stranger and give support.

I know after each of these encounters how happy and at peace I felt. It will encourage me to continue to do the same with others.

Imagine how many lives you can touch in a positive way just by taking the time to reach out.

 

Eating in response to uncomfortable emotions seems like an out of control roller coaster.  You keep telling yourself that this time it is going to be different!  You find yourself  triggered by a person or an event which leads to binge eating.  This pattern continues with emotional pressure building up, binging and then  feeling remorse or guilt.  Over time, this unhealthy pattern takes a huge chunk out of your self esteem. It feels like there is no way out….but there is a way.

Understanding the connection between your conscious, thinking mind and subconscious, feeling mind is the answer.  Our conscious thoughts can ignite  uncomfortable feelings that lead to out of control eating.  Also our subconscious feelings influence our thoughts that lead to out of control eating.

Change happens when you are able to tune in and refocus your conscious, thinking mind, become fluent in your body’s language, allowing you to fulfill your emotional needs, and engage both the conscious, thinking world and subconscious, feeling world in cooperation to change the pattern.

Learning to understand our needs emotionally, consciously and subconsciously, allows us to “rewire” the old habit, resulting in a sense of calm control and choice.